1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to evaluating information technology and more particularly to measuring the effect of information technology on the healthcare industry.
2. Description of Related Art
Understanding the tradeoffs between the costs of information technology (IT) and the benefits of improved healthcare requires a detailed understanding of both subjects as well as their interrelationships. See, for example: Fonkych, Kateryna et al., “The State and Pattern of Health Information Technology Adoption”, Rand Health, 2005; Schmidek, Jared M., et al., “What do we know about Financial Returns on Investments in Patient Safety”, Journal on Quality and Patient Safety, Volume 31 Number 12, December 2005, pp. 690-699; and Johnston, Doug, et al., “Finding the Value in Healthcare Information Technologies”, Center for IT Leadership, Partners Healthcare, Boston, Mass., 2002, each of which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.
There are many examples of IT improving efficiency and quality across many industries. However, the healthcare industry is relatively short of success stories. This is mainly due to the relatively low levels of adoption by the industry. The healthcare industry allocates a smaller percentage of revenue to IT than most other industries. This is indicative of the perception of IT is in the healthcare industry and the realities that a Chief Information Officer in healthcare may cope with. The year-over-year increases in IT investments are a clear demonstration that the perception of IT is slowly shifting from that of cost center to care delivery partner. Technology is seen as a solution, if only in part, to many healthcare business imperatives including: legislative compliance, cash flow, reimbursement levels, staffing shortages and staff workload, inefficient business processes, medical outcomes and most importantly, reducing preventable medical errors. The reduction of medical errors continues to be a top priority for healthcare worldwide.
Advances in IT provide great potential for yielding positive changes for patients, healthcare providers and payers by enabling access to the right information, for the right people at the right time. By providing clinicians with faster access to patient data and clinical decision support, IT enables increased patient safety and improves the overall quality of care. The benefits of IT also include: (a) improved access to care from streamlined processes; (b) integration of traditionally disparate patient and administrative information; (c) increased productivity and job satisfaction for clinical staff; (d) faster patient throughput and shorter waiting times; and (e) reduced administrative costs and (f) other forms of cost savings such as lower reporting and inventory costs.
However, there is a scarcity of rigorous studies to prove the value of actual Healthcare IT (HIT) implementations. Therefore, there is very little hard evidence demonstrating the value of specific HIT investments. Ideally, a useful study of HIT value is one that captures all of the benefits—both tangible and intangible—and provides sufficient evidence to drive effective HIT decision making. Then, better data about the value of HIT can enable healthcare providers to improve their investment decisions. However, there is generally a lack of information about the true costs, benefits and experience associated with Healthcare IT investments. The resulting uncertainty is a major barrier to adoption especially when the competition for investment funding is tight and operating margins at most health care organizations are shrinking.
Thus, there is a need for an approach to a comprehensive understanding and evaluation of the benefits of HIT adoption for improved evaluation of healthcare information technology.